First annual Ryan Shay Mile July 26 in Charlevoix

“Anyone who knew about track or racing also knew who Ryan Shay was,” said Matt Peterson, who was a track and field coach for 16 years at East Jordan High School.

Shay went to Central Lake High School, in East Jordan and graduated in 1997. Though Peterson never met Shay, he had seen him race several times while coaching against him.

“I remember having a high school invitational at East Jordan, and he (Shay) was only in eighth grade at the time and he beat all of the high schoolers,” said Peterson, who no longer coaches but still teaches at East Jordan. “Everyone I coached in high school was in awe of him.”

Shay died at the Olympic Trials Marathon in New York on Nov. 3, 2007. He was 28 years old.

He was a Notre Dame graduate where he won the 10,000 meter NCAA national outdoor track championship in 2001.

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Professionally, Shay won five national championships including the 2003 USA Track and Field marathon. In high school, he won 11 state championships in cross country and track.

Peterson is one of the organizers for the first annual Ryan Shay Mile in Charlevoix.

The event, scheduled for 10 a.m., July 26, is a one-mile road race which starts from the corner of M-66 and US-31 and heads North ending a few yards before the bridge.

“He was certainly the best in Northern Michigan in high school,” said Peterson. “If he wasn’t the best, he was close to it. The kids that I coached always said he was real nice and a very hardworking young man.”

Bergmann Marine donated $4,000 as the prize money for the race. “We wanted to get this thing started and somebody had to donate the prize money, so I thought it would be a great honor to do so,” said Doug Bergmann, owner of Bergmann Marine.

Bergmann said it was a small amount of money compared to the amount of leg work they had to do to get the word out to the elite running community.

“We really wanted to make the first year respectable… all of the runners are at least collegiate All-Americans,” Bergmann said. “We’re kind of off the beat and path in the track world, but it really helps to have Ryan’s name attached to it.”

Bergmann used to coach track in Charlevoix for a brief period of time, and though he also didn’t know Shay personally, he knew of his reputation.

“What he was most known for is that he was really talented and an extremely hard worker,” Bergmann said. “Even when he got to that level (in college and as a professional) he was still seen as a hard worker who was very mentally tough.”

“There was no question he was the best guy on the field,” Bergmann said. “If he went down, he went down swinging. Also, if you planned on beating him, you were going to have to beat him because he wasn’t going to beat himself or let himself lose.”

Doug Drenth, another organizer of this year’s foot races, said that he met Shay once at a Nationals competition for cross-country about two years ago. “Their whole family were runners, and I was talking to their father Joe who was there to support his younger son, Stephan, and Ryan also happened to be there supporting his brother,” said Drenth. “I only got to meet Ryan briefly, but growing up in Northern Michigan, he was just an inspiration. This is to honor him and his family.”

“Their father, Joe, is a great guy,” Drenth said. “Joe would coach anybody. He loves running and has a very strong knowledge of the sport and its reflected in Ryan and Stephan and all of the Shays.”

All three organizers of the event, Peterson, Bergmann and Drenth stressed the fact they are doing this to try to get people out to the parade a little earlier. “It’s also meant to allow them the opportunity to see Olympic-caliber athletes at a venue that they normally wouldn’t see them,” Bergmann said.